On the evening of May 12 a virtual town hall was hosted by the Republican Party clubs of Washington and Lawrence townships for Republican candidates for U.S. House of Representatives in District 5 (INCD5).
I was unaware there was a soiree. I telephoned the moderator yesterday morning. Another person called me as the first of two sets of candidates took to the air, said he would call the show’s sponsors, and help get me onto the program.
I have checked my e-mails and found no such invitation. I caught part of the program: a rant by Carl Brizzi, former Marion County prosecutor, about the Chinese - how they are the source of COVID-19 and are to blame for the pandemic.
Although there was sufficient time to have me on the program, and even though the person who coordinated invitations to candidates said he would call me, he did not. Brizzi was able to rattle on about the evils of the Chinese.
“Racism” is defined as “1. He belief that some races are inherently superior to other races. 2. Unfair treatment of people, often including violence against them, because they belong to a different race from one’s own.” Black’s Law Dictionary, 10th ed., 2014, p. 1448.
America’s history is many-hued and has been coated with broad strokes of racism. To ignore shortcomings in our history is to doom us to repeat them. Brizzi’s is an old playbook. Others have targeted people of supposed inferior races to benefit at the polls.
They were “criminals” whose persecution was viewed, by a future President, as “a good thing.” They were depicted as actively corrupting elected officials here. Disgusting racist nicknames were ascribed to them.
I write not of people from China - although our racism unforgivably targeted them - but Italians. Brizzi’s surname is Italian. A few years ago it was said he would be Indiana campaign manager for Rudy Guiliani - another Italian-American.
Our history should have taught us that racism has no place - none, zero, zip - in politics. Yet here is a person who has derived a paycheck from elected office - i.e., not a political “outsider” - from two terms as Marion County Prosecutor - who now blames the Chinese for COVID.
In WWII Japanese-Americans - naturalized or of one or two generations’ descent - were rounded up and placed in camps. American citizens of German descent did not face similar acts of discrimination in such numbers.
Numbers interned during WWII: German-Americans, 11,507; Japanese-Americans, estimates run between 110,000 and 120,000. Kashima, Tetsuden, “Judgment without trial: Japanese American imprisonment during World War II,” 2003, p. 124. Italian-Americans: hundreds.
There were differences between German- and Japanese-Americans. German-Americans were 1) white and 2) found to have committed treason in service to the Third Reich in many cases more than Japanese-Americans acted on behalf of The Emperor.
COVID-19, according to scientists here who have studied it, has natural, not human-made, origins. Chinese government officials bungled how it was handled. So, too, did an American of German descent who sits in the Oval Office.
I will debate any or all of my opponents for the GOP nomination in INCD5. Also: it appears that I am 2-0 in elections as a Republican - for preinct committee person and delegate to the State GOP convention.
Local press erroneously has stated my positions line up more with the Democratic Party - au contraire! I favor banning subsidies to pro sports, banning TIFS (look it up, TIFS = fiscal cancer), cutting the defense budget in half, legalizing all drugs, and single payer.
In the meantime, the voters of INCD5 should realize that people like Brizzi, Beckwith, Bales (sorry Andy, but you are getting bad again), Henderson, Abernathy - are intellectual cowards and blowhards. They embrace trump and espose racist ideas.
I am different from the other white people who seek the Republican nomination for INCD5. For one thing I favor protection of civil rights - neither Klansmen nor Nazis are “fine people” - and I am willing to debate. Rules:
1) Impartial moderator; 2) Don’t interrupt during someone else’s speaking time; 3) Neutral playing field - during pandemic, that means on-line anyway. If someone accepts this challenge, I say spiffy!
I’m Mark Small, GOP candidate in INCD5's June 2 primary. I’m pro-choice, pro-environment, anti-war and anti-dt. I’m not too chicken to debate, unlike most of my opponents. I approve of this blog. Hell, I wrote it.